Arts d'Asie

Kitagawa Utamaro (1754-1806) | Kappa violating an awabi diver | Edo period, late 18th century

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Auction Closed

June 11, 03:42 PM GMT

Estimate

18,000 - 22,000 EUR

Lot Details

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Description

woodblock print, shunga, from the album Poems of the Pillow (Utamakura), published by Tsutaya Juzaburo (Koshodo) in 1788

Horizontal oban: 26.7 x 38.1 cm., 8⅝ by 12⅝ in.

The opening print of the twelve-sheet shunga [lit. 'pictures of spring'] album Utamakura (Poems of the Pillow), widely regarded as one of Utamaro's finest achievements and a landmark of the genre. Two kappa – supernatural water creatures of Japanese folklore – ravish an ama diving girl beneath the waves, while a companion diver watches from a rocky islet above with an expression of horror mixed with fascination.

For further reading see Shugo Asano and Timothy Clark, The Passionate Art of Kitagawa Utamaro (London, 1995), text vol., pp. 278–79; reproduced in colour, plates vol., p. 245.

A similar impression of the same print is in the collection of the British Museum, museum number OA+,0.133.1, go to:

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_OA-0-133-1

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